Tuesday, February 3, 2015

To Kill a Mockingbird sequel

I for one was very excited over my porridge this morning, when I read that Penguin Random House will soon publish a sequel to one of my favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee's Purlitzer prize-winning book of honor and injustice in the deep south -- and the heroism of one man in the face of blind, violent hatred and racism. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31118355  This book had a huge impact on me when we read it as teenagers at high school. The sequel, Go Set a Watchman, is about the adventures of a grown-up Scout as she returns to Maycomb, Alabama to visit Atticus.  Lee said in a statement delivered through her publisher that the book's long lost manuscript was discovered by her lawyer "in a secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird."


Some people, like Hannah Jane Parkinson writing in the Guardian, think the sequel is a bad idea: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/03/go-set-a-watchman-sequels-harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird    She has an interesting perspective but I personally feel the sequel is well timed, dealing as it does with intolerance and racism at a time when both subjects are at the forefront of world events yet again.


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